The Path to Passion...at Zeum

Love, passion, and inspiration motivate one to strive for his or her dream. They have brought me to Zeum and I could not have asked for more.

I have always enjoyed working with kids and had a passion in arts and craft since I was in elementary school. I was pumped when I found out that at Zeum I was going to be able to combine both of them together. What more could I ask for? Well guess what? Working at Zeum gave me more than just the opportunity to work with kids and art. I received a priceless gift unexpectedly. The chance to help kids create big smiles and laughter. :D


Although I have only been working at Zeum for a month, I already have many fond memories. One that stood out the most was this one friday when two big summer camps came to Zeum around the same time. I was in digital workshop and I did not anticipate that I would have to get people to start a line to get into the room. I was working alone in that room and kids were screaming for help. Thankfully, I was laughing throughout the whole experience. I guess it is a natural cover up for me when I'm under stress, but the laughter pulled the stress right out of me. This one little 6 year old boy was too short to be seen through the camera so he had his friends carry him up and they ended up taking a group picture instead. It was hectic, but every kid was satisfied with his or her picture and their group leader thanked me. I was proud of myself because I handled the large group by myself and I managed to stay positive and help each kid individually.

Although I see my friends helping each other out in a daily basis, there's always that magic spark that jumps in my heart when I see young kids help each other. Kids offer help and in return, they just want to have fun. I am glad that Zeum can offer them a place where they can experience art and tech with their friends. Museums in general are places where kids can get an insight to a specific topic, but at Zeum, although it is an art and tech based museum, there are endless opportunities for the kids and their family to "create, collaborate, and communicate" at the same time.

At the end of the day, I would have probably received more than 100 smiles. Although some kids may not have grown all their teeth yet (haha), but those smiles are still worth a million!

-Amy

Alternative Clay Building

There is more than one way to build a clay character. Normally we give the visitors wire shaped into a person and they can make that shape into a four legged animal, butterfly, fish or whatever they choose, but today we learned how to make characters without using wire or a lot of clay. Once we made the characters, we got paired up with another person and had to tell a story with our clay character. Once both partners told their story, we had to come up with one as a team with a conflict and a resolution.

We could use this technique and show visitors. When we get little kids into the clay animation room.

  we could show them this technique so they can build a clay character that they could take home without using wire. This is a great way to get the little kids into building clay characters and not just smashing they clay together. 

Not Just "Josh's Little Sister" ;)

Hey everyone, my name is Jessica. I started knowing about Zeum from my older brother, Josh. He worked at Zeum for about 4 years until he went off to college. I remember coming to Zeum to watch him work, it was fun. He was outgoing and made the kids come out their shell. He made them laugh and i noticed he was very good with kids after seeing that. Everyone knew me at Zeum as "josh's little sister". I didn't mind, well matter a fact, when his co-workers asked me who i was i referred to as "josh's little sister.

I loved going to the second floor of Zeum to watch the kids sing in MPL( Music Production Lab). I was too scared to go up there to sing.( I guess the kids weren't the only one who was shy). I also remember going to some of the"end of the day meetings". It was very interesting...even though I had know clue of what was going on. The more I came, the more I started to think this would be a nice and fun place to work. I talked to my brother about working here, but at the time he didn't really want me working with him, so i kept visiting.

As time went on my aunt wanted me to start looking for a job, so I came back to my brother and said I was applying to Zeum. He finally was okay with it because he said then he could watch me( sure) lol. It then came to me that my future was based on child development and dealing with children. That's when i realized Zeum was more than just a fun place to work, it would further my career.

I then got straight on it and started applying. I remember applying in there staff office, since I was Josh's little sister, his co-workers let me go in there. The same day I got it was the same day I turned it in. I was so anxious to work for Zeum. I wanted to start right away, but of course you have to go through that long old process to get a job, let alone your first job.

The manager at the time, Christian, said he'll call me in about a week or two. For those two weeks I was hoping to get the job. When I received his phone call, I was relieved. He told me to come in for an interview. I was so anxious but nervous..lol. I was interviewed by my friend from my program and Ari, who was the assistant manager of Zeum but is now the manager because Christian went back to school.

I remember the interview so well. I felt good and nerves went away after answering the first couple of questions. Then I had to get a work permit, which is kind of a long process because at the time I was moving so all my information was packed away, but since everyone at Zeum liked me they gave me time. ( I felt even more glad to work at Zeum because they understood that I needed time to get my papers).

When i finally got settled down I returned my work permit in and was almost a ZeumMaster( Not exactly because you have to go through the training because there's so many rooms so you have to learn something new in every space). It was fun to shadow the ZeumMasters at Zeum to observe how they engage with the visitors. It was a great experience because from there I learned more. Also since we all are in the same age group, we have many things in common. They should me how everything works and the first question you should always ask is"Have You Been Here Before?" because depending on there answer there different things you have to do. At first it was kind of scary to engage with the visitor, but the more i started doing it the more it just came to me like second nature..lol.

I was then officially a ZeumMaster. All my hard work paid off. In the beginning I didn't expect to become a ZeumMaster, but here I am almost a half a year working at Zeum. I intend to stay working here until I go off to college. Another crazy thing is, I'm thinking about going to my brothers school in LA( our hometown). After all this, I didnt even end up working with him because he was graduating high school going off to college, which was about the same time I started to apply. "This was fun to talk about my experiences!" ( Blogging is fun)-July 2, 2009

Also the photo above is a self portrait that I created in Zeum's Digital Workshop.

Playing to Learn

Hey, hey, wassuppp?!? I'm Cristina and a new ZeumMaster at the Z house. Lol. I'm just chillaxin at Zeum writing my first blog of all times!!! SUPER COOL HUH!!!! I'm soOOooOo intrigued that I recieved this job. When I was in the process of applying to Zeum I wasn't sure of what Zeum had in store for me. I expected wonderful things but I didn't know that it would be this good. First of all I have a long background of "supervising children" but really I just ABSOLUTELy love KiDZZzz. I swear they brighten up my whole life with one smile. I liteweight wish that I could be SUPERWOMAN and save all children from deviance. LOL, but that's beside tha point..

Not only does the Zeum embody the 3 C's ( Collabration, Communication, and Creativity) it makes the children strive to use their imagination to create wonder and beauty. That's what makes this job AWESOME! Like there are some kids that come to the Zeum with low self-esteem yet, when they leave here they are touched with a light that they can create ANYTHING!!! If I ever can "touch" a child's life and make them feel that at least a lil better than before it's worth it, and at Zeum this is what we do.

Today, specifically we had a training to strengthen our knowledge in how we approach children and help them learn. We are broadening our targeted ages to 3-12 and we need to make changes on how we make things more fun for the younger audience. So anyways today, in the morning we had a training like we do most mornings.

One of our staff led a training this morning to teach zeummasters how children develop and how to interlock this knowlegde into what we do at ZEUM. Well we learned alot, that connected me back to my psychology class. We got to see how kids learn through play. After playing a vicious game of blocks, : p, we quickly saw how children play and where we fall in that process. We were confronted with the issue of playing well and playing to win. We at Zeum don't want to encourage playing to win as much as playing well. Children need to know that collaboration and solving simple problems with creativity is the same as winning. Every object a child makes is in turn them succeeding, it reflects their hard and complete work. At Zeum every one is a champion, because they are challenging themselves to trumpth. WELLL i gotsZ to get back to my JOB!!!

LOVE ALWAYS,

CRiSTiNA

P.S. i LOVE MY JOB!!!

Zeeeeeeeeeummm!

I couldn't sum up everything ZEUM is in one sentence. There are so many possibilities and amazing things that happen here. I just started working here for the summer, and it has already blown me away. It was what I expected and much much more. From the outside, Zeum already stands out from many other museums from it's funky spiral shape and glass exterior. The kids that come by are just awesome. It really brings me back to when I was younger and had a limitless imagination. It's true that children see the world in a completely different perspective, and I'm so grateful that I can be in on the action and that I get to witness this every day I work at Zeum. The creativity just bounces from wall to wall in this building and the energy is always up! After joining the ZeumMaster team I got really excited and I already wanted to show off how great Zeum was to my friends and family. I think it's really great to have a place like Zeum for children to explore their creative sides and break out of their shell. There are so many opportunities here and although this is a children's museum, it's also a place where adults can go back and do things they may not have had the chance to do when they were younger. It's really true that everyone is a kid at heart.

The exhibits in Zeum are crazy. My favorites are definitely the Music Production Lab (MPL) and the Animators Studio. It's really fun watching all these different people sing together. I feel like I've learned so much about myself from this program. I hope that Zeum can expand to touch many more lives. In the Music Production Lab, it's really touching to see kids to come in shy but then by the time they're supposed to go up, they rock out and have a super fun time. It feels really awesome to be contributing to their experience here at Zeum, and I hope their time here is something they won't forget. At the MPL I've already made many memories with the visitors and with my peers. I love to sing, but I usually save that for when I'm at home or with my close friends. When I first became a ZeumMaster, I wasn't very comfortable on the stage but after a couple days, I love the stage and connecting with the visitors.

The Animators studio is so great because here the kids can make their own Claymation movie or go to another part of the exhibit and make a 2D or 3D animation. The visitors just love the studio and some stay for hours to perfect their clay characters and such. As a kid I didn't even know how animation was made but with this opportunity, the visitors have a chance to make movies like the ones they see on TV and the big screen. I love to just sit with the visitors and just listen to what story they've cooked up and the big plans they have for their animation. Their ideas are inspiring and they think so out of the box.

The smaller exhibits we have can also make a huge impact, like with our Lego and Colorform exhibit, I've seen some crazy things that visitors make and it really opens my eyes. How a Lego wall could be transformed into something completely different, it's really amazing. The visitors' personalities are displayed clearly through their artwork, and their stories.

The staff here is amazing and they couldn't be any greater. I love working at Zeum and I can't wait to make more memories here.

If you haven't been here, you're missing out!

-- Shelley [:

I Love Zeum!

Heyy everybody! I'm just going to blog about how much I enjoy Zeum =). I've been working here for about 5 months?? Well, it doesn't feel like work. It almost kind of feels like play time! I've learned more then I've expected to learn. From working with computers to working with kids and adults, there's a variety of new things to learn. I mean, every room you go into holds a whole new path of creativity and imagination! And, dude, there's alot of rooms to explore. When I help out the guests, not only do THEY experience new things, but I do too! For example, the questions each guest holds, the reactions to the experiences and fun they're having, ideas on how to improve what can be done, the things the kids create with their own i m a g i n a t i o n s , things that even I, can't think of.

My two favorite rooms right now are Music Production Lab (MPL) and Animators Studio. I'm liking MPL because I love m u s i c ! I find it pretty cool when I see and listen to kids, adults, and Zeum Masters singing. There are many different voices and songs out there. Sometimes, I even learn new songs while listening to everybody.

Animators Studio is another favorite because I used to love making art when I was little. I loved drawing and painting. I remember in kindergarten, the teacher would give us an option to play in the playgroud, or stay in the room and draw or create things ! Everybody would choose to go out, but I remember myself staying in the room playing with the crayons. Animators caught my eye when I first got here. I was like "Woahh this is cool!". I've made a couple things in Animators already. One I like the most is the sliced clay cake. Its in the display box! (The Pink Cake). I like this cake because I've seen kids go look at the cake, and then make a cake themselves ! Another cool thing was that the inside is all guts. So, when I sliced open the cake, it looked pretty cool!

Well, yeahhh today is my last day! Hopefully I'll be back in the summertime. kThnx For reading! =)

Collaboration For a Better Future

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - Barack Obama current U.S president

Five Spaces .

Four Concepts .

Three Green Screens.

Two Floors.

One Idea

Zeum is once again on the move . Change is a must . Now a days we want it bigger want it badder want it awesome. So Zeum as a standing role model will once again try to meet the requirements of a changing pace. Plus its always nice to deserve a wow.

This time its a little different. Zeum is coming to us, the ZeumMasters for help and critique on each of the spaces . Wow right ?

So heres the deal : Themed Exhibits

An idea to bring together the spaces and to spice it up .
Your favorite exhibit is gonna get a makeover every month or so , You come into the room and have the option to participate in the theme of the month.

The purpose of all this is to offer something new and different to keep all you visitors happy and entertained.

The way it goes is that each month we will brain storm different ideas for the month and make it a reality with our budget. The Zeum Masters in collaboration with the Educators with choose what to buy how it will look where to put it and how to present it. Who knows maybe some of these will be permanent .

ZeumMasters really have special input at Zeum. Close enough to having control over it but far enough away to think like a consumer. Age wise to we know what is in and what is not. As teens its amazing thought that we have more control than we previously thought. To be given a task to be trusted , well its quite a feat.

At Zeum were all about what you take when you leave this place. My goal for Zeum is each time a visitor revisits I want them to notice something new. A quote on the wall somewhere a new costume. I want visitors to make visits to make memories.

AND YEA ....


♥ Brianna

ZeumMasters on Film

Check out this video, made by Nae, Brianna, Denzel, Andrew, Leigh Ann, Wing Yan, Victor and Sammi and with the assistance of awesome Educator Eli.

We Still Dream for San Francisco

This morning, in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., ZeumMasters, Team Leaders, Ari, Irina and David shared dreams for San Francisco...read on...

I have a DREAM that everyone, especially children, can receive the same quality of education, despite age, race, color, religion or beliefs. Starting with teachers passionate about what they do. With that DREAM, parents and children forced to believe that they are incapable of moving up in this jaded society and a social class system that they think still exists, will be more aware of events and issues that aren't happening in SF but also around the world. Education is where it all be

gins.

The city and California need more funding for you

th activities to keep them off the streets.

I want San Francisco to be a place that is affordable, safe and welcoming for everyone.

MY DREAM = clean planet, peaceful earth, friendly people.

I HAD a dream that there would be less violence in San Francisco.

I have a dream that racism never existed. I have a dream that you wouldn't get killed by the color of your skin or your race. I have a dream where if you say you're not someone, you wouldn't get shot for mistaken identity. I have a dream to live in a peaceful world where there is no violence, guns, knives, killings and where we all get along. I have a dream where the economy would never be bad so everyone has a chance for employment and education...R.I.P. MLK, Josh and G-l...If we lived in a world without racism, y'all would be with us and not dead because of your race.

I have a dream that just as many people of color will live in pacific heights as white people and that people will not have reason to think of certain other neighborhoods as dangerous. I have a dream that San Francisco will pave the way for equality in as many ways as we can continue to dream of.

I have a dream that the economic crisis will end so that there will be no poor or homeless people, that everyone will have a job and be productive in the community.

What's your dream?

ZeumMasters Silk Screen!

Heyyyyyyyy my name is Dayana and today we went on a really cool field trip. You ask where? Well i shall tell you. We did silk screening in the mission. It was a lot of fun.

We had been working on them for a while. We first started out with nothing. You could use any image you wanted. You could draw an image or you could pull one of the net. only if it was not copyrighted. So i decided to use some pictures i took at a concert i went to. The concert i went to was called SassyBack Tour with Cobra Starship, Forever The Sickest Kids, Hit The Lights, and Sing It Loud. The pictures i used were of Kyle&Austin from Forever The Sickest Kids. At first i was debating who's picture to use, either Kyle or Austin but then David saved the day and help me put both of the pictures together. After working on our pictures we finally got them printed onto our screens.



Today was the day we went to go print our images on paper. It was really fun - first we had to put ink on the screen. Then somebody would hold it down for you as you spread the ink with the squeegee. Once you spread it with your squeegee you can either add a little more ink and do it again or you can wash it and play with some "fake under painting". At first I just played around with just regular white paper. It was pretty cool how the picture came out. But after I played around with the white paper. I printed on red and yellow paper.The pictures came out good and all I can say is I had a lot of fun and learned so many new things :)